(1876.)
The old theory of “The right divine of kings to govern wrong,” and the
much-quoted text, “Fear God and honor the king,” seem to have impressed
many good people with the notion that the Bible is in favor of monarchy.
But “king” in the text plainly has the general meaning of “ruler,” and
would be equally applicable to the President of a Republic. In Romans
xiii. 1—3, we read: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of
God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of
God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For
rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.” Without
stopping to discuss the bold assertion in the last sentence, we may
remark that the real teaching of this passage is that Christians ought
to be indifferent to politics, quietly accepting whatever government
they find in power; for if the powers that be are ordained of God, or in
other words, if might is right, all forms of government are equally
entitled to obedience so long as they actually exist. Of course
Christians are not now, and for the most part have not been for
centuries, really indifferent to politics, because for the most part
they now are and long have been Christians only in name; but it is easy
to understand from the New Testament itself why the first Christians
naturally were thus indifferent, and why Christianity has never afforded
any political inspiration. Nothing can be clearer to one who reads the
New Testament honestly and without prejudice than the fact that Christ
and his apostles believed that the end of the world was at hand. Thus in
Matt, xxiv., Jesus after foretelling the coming to judgment of the son
of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, when the
angels shall gather the elect from the four winds, adds, v. 34, “Verily
I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be
fulfilled.” This is repeated in almost the same words in Mark xiii., and
Luke xxi., and a careful reading of the Epistles shows that their
writers were profoundly influenced by this prophecy. But with the world
coming to an end so soon, it would be as absurd to take any interest in
its politics as for a traveller stopping two or three days in an inn to
concern himself self with schemes for rebuilding it, when about to leave
for a far country where he intends settling for life. If therefore we
want any political guidance from the Holy Scriptures, we must go to the
Old Testament, not to the New.
Now the first lesson on Monarchy, which we remember made us think even
in childhood, is the fable of the trees electing a king, told by Jotham,
the son of Gideon, in Judges ix. The trees in the process of this
election showed a judgment much superior to that which men usually show
in such a business. It is true that they did not select first the most
strong and stalwart of trees, the cedar or the oak, but they had the
good sense to choose the most sweet-natured and bountiful, the olive,
then the fig, then the vine. But the bountiful trees thus chosen had
good sense too, and would not forsake the fatness and the sweetness and
the wine which cheereth God and man, to rule over their fellow trees.
Then the poor trees, like a jilted girl who marries in spleen the first
scamp she comes across, asked the bramble to be their king; and that
barren good-for-nothing of course accepted eagerly the crown which the
noble and generous had refused, and called upon the trees to put their
trust in its scraggy shadow, “and if not, let fire come out of the
bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.” Young as we were when this
fable first caught our attention, we mused a good deal over it, and even
then began to learn that those most eager for supremacy, the most
forward candidates in elections, are nearly always brambles, not olives
or fig-trees or vines; and that the first thought of a bramble, when
made ruler over its betters, is naturally to destroy with fire the
cedars of Lebanon.
But God himself in the case of the Israelites has vouchsafed to us a
very clear judgment on the question of Monarchy. In the remarkable
constitution for that people which he gave to Moses, he did not include
a king, and Israel remained without a king for more years than it is
worth while endeavoring to count here. We read, 1 Samuel viii., how “All
the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel
unto Hamah, and said unto him, Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk
not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge
us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for
they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should
not reign over them.
“... Now therefore hearken unto their voice: how-beit yet protest
solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall
reign over them.” Some students of the Bible may have thought that God’s
severe condemnation of the Israelites for wanting a king arose chiefly
from wounded pride, from the fact that they had rejected him, and we
cannot affirm that this feeling did not inflame his anger, for he
himself has said that he is a jealous God; but the protest which he
orders Samuel to make, and the exposition of the common evils of
kingship, prove clearly that God did not (and therefore, of course, does
not) approve this form of government. And, indeed, it is plain that if
he had approved it, he would have given it to his chosen people at
first. For although divines have termed the form of government under
which the Jews lived before the kings a theocracy, God did not then rule
immediately, but always through the medium of a high-priest or judge,
and could have governed through the medium of a king had he thought it
well so to do. And he who reads the history of the Jews under the
Judges, as contained in the Book of Judges, and especially the
narratives in chapters xvii. to xxi. which illustrate the condition of
Jewish society in those days when “there was no king in Israel: every
man did that which was right in his own eyes,” will see that God must
have thought a Monarchy very vile and odious indeed when he was angry at
the request for it, and implied that it was actually worse than that
government by Judges alternated with bondage under neighboring tribes
which the theologians call a theocracy. Samuel warned the people of what
a king would do, and doubtless thought he was warning them of the worst,
but kings have far outstripped all that the prophet could foresee. The
king, he said, will take your sons to be his warriors and servants; and
will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and cooks, and bakers.
This was the truth, and nothing but the truth, but it was not the whole
truth; for the sons have been taken to be far worse than mere warriors
and servants, and the daughters for much viler purposes than cooking and
baking. Samuel goes on: “And he will take your fields, and your
vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to
his servants”—when he does not keep them for himself might have been
added. “And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards,
and give to his officers, and to his servants.” Surely much more than a
tenth, O Samuel! We will not quote the remainder of this wise warning.
Like most wise warnings it was ineffectual; the foolish people insisted
on having a king, and in the following chapters we read how Saul the Son
of Kish, going forth to seek his father’s asses, found his own subjects.
The condemnation of Monarchy by God, as we read it in this instance, is
so thorough and general that we feel bound to add a few words on an
exceptional case in which a king is highly extolled in the Scriptures,
without any actions being recorded of him, as in the instances of David
and Solomon, to nullify the praise. The king in question was
Melchizedek, King of Salem, and priest of the most high God, who met
Abram returning from the defeat of the four kings and blessed him, and
to whom Abram gave tithes of all, as we read in Genesis xiv. But this
short notice of Melchizedek in Genesis does not by any means suggest to
us the full wonderfulness of his character, though we naturally conclude
from it that he was indeed an important personage to whom Abram gave
tithes of all. The New Testament, however, comes to our aid, and for
once gives us a most valuable political lesson, though the inspired
writer was far from thinking of political instruction when he wrote the
passage. In Hebrews vi., 20, and vii., 1 to 3, we read: “Jesus, made an
High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For this
Melchisedec, King of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also
Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of
righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of
peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God;
abideth a priest continually.” Now he to whom Jesus is compared, and who
is like the Son of God, is clearly the noblest of characters; and
therefore, as the history in the first book of Samuel teaches us that
Monarchy is generally to be avoided, these fine verses from the Epistle
to the Hebrews delineate for us the exceptional king whose reign is to
be desired.
The delineation is quite masterly, for a few lines give us
characteristics which cannot be overlooked or mistaken. This model
monarch must be a priest of the most high God—a king of righteousness
and king of peace; without father, without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life; but made like unto the
Son of God. Whenever and wherever such a gentleman is met with, we would
advise even the most zealous Republicans to put him forthwith upon the
throne. But in the absence of such a gentleman we can hardly do wrong if
we follow the good advice of Samuel dictated by God Almighty, and manage
without any Monarch.